A triple album is a lot to swallow. Throughout history double albums (as in the CD version of this release) have almost always been met with a lot of skepticism. It is just so easy to pick the strongest half of the songs and think about how good it could have been if just that would have been the song selection.

For Lucinda Williams this is her 11th album since her debut in 1979. It is definitely a career highlight for her. As her record company didn’t want to put out the bulky release she simply decided to put it out herself and now we can all see why she wanted it released a single piece of work. Spread over the three LPs are the big choruses of “Burning Bridges” and “Walk On” as well as the swagger and attitude of “Wrong Number” and the gentle duet with Jakob Dylan, “It’s Gonna Rain.” The 20-song collection is all appropriately capped off by a nearly 10 minute version of J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia.”

Williams is hitting on all cylinders here, her age and maturity shine through but she still has enough angst left to keep the album from dragging. For a songwriter this good, if she says she has two albums worth of material, that is exactly what I want to hear. No less.